Blood on the Clocktower works well at almost all advertised player counts. BoardGameGeek lists it as 6-21, including the Story Teller as a player, which they very much are.
First, those few player counts that are the ones I try to avoid. That is 6 and 16+.
First we have Teensyville, a special game mode designed when you can’t quite get enough players, exclusively for 5 or 6 players plus a story teller. These games can be super fun and nice and quick, but with only 5 players, game are too quick and much more limited and, in all the ones I have played, always feel like they lacked… *something*, that the 6 player ones don’t.
Next are very large games. once you reach 13 players, you get maximum minions, which can be difficult, depending on the script and the minion powers in play. But once you reach 15, that is the maximum number of normal players you can have without travellers. Once you reach 16 players, travellers are necessary. At that point, I would rather play 2 smaller games where everyone can be a non-traveller.
Finally, my favourite player counts. These are 9, 11 and 12 players. The reason for this is three fold.
First is outsider count. Base 0 outsiders can often make it much easier to prove a player via outsider count (highly script dependant of course) but also outsiders are some of the most interesting and unique characters that bring such variety to the game.
Second is the ratio of good to evil. It seems to hit about right. Not too many evil overpowering, with miss information and powers, but also not too many (or few) powerful townsfolk to get game solving information.
Third is time. Ever present. Games aren’t over too quick, nor do they take too long. Not dead forever if killed early, but also not a feeling of wanting more after a game it over, that it wasn’t enough.
Leave a Reply